Latest NCAA Sports News & Rankings

GAINESVILLE, Fla. Florida guard Bradley Beal is turning pro, leaving the Gators right after a single season.

Beal announced his intentions Friday, declaring for the NBA draft right after telling coach Billy Donovan.

The 6-foot-four Beal is expected to be a lottery choose in the June 28 draft, predicted to go in the best five. Donovan calls the 18-year-old Beal ”as mature a kid at this age as I’ve ever been around.”

Beal says his dream is ”sitting appropriate right here in front of me” and that he’s ”ready to recognize this dream.”

Beal averaged 14.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and two.2 assists as a freshman and produced the 1st-team All-Southeastern Conference team.

He is the second player to leave Florida for the NBA immediately after 1 season in the course of Donovan’s 16 years, joining Donnell Harvey (2000).

STORRS, Conn. University of Connecticut sophomore guard Jeremy Lamb announced Tuesday that he has declared for the NBA draft.

Lamb led the Huskies in scoring final season at 17.7 points per game, and was a crucial component of the team that won the NCAA championship in 2011.

”It was a hard decision, but right after much prayer and discussion with my parents, I really feel that it’s in the greatest interest of me and my loved ones to declare myself eligible for the upcoming NBA Draft and pursue my dream of playing specialist basketball,” Lamb mentioned in a statement released by UConn. ”I have very significantly enjoyed my two years at UConn, particularly acquiring to experience one of the greatest feelings that a college player can have, winning the national championship.”

Lamb, a 19-year-old from Norcross, Ga., became just the sixth sophomore in UConn background to score 1,000 career points. On his way to becoming the team’s scoring leader final season, he also averaged four.9 rebounds and was chosen to the All Large East very first team.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun mentioned he looks forward to seeing Lamb create into a ”terrific player” in the NBA.

”It’s never ever effortless to lose a great player from your program, but Jeremy has a exclusive chance that he wants to take benefit of,” Calhoun said. ”He’s been a fantastic kid to coach for the past two years.”

The six-foot-5 Lamb ranks No. 42 on UConn’s all-time scoring list with 1,060 points. He is the 11th player in UConn history to score as many as 600 points (603) in a single season.

LAWRENCE, Kan. Thomas Robinson, the brawny Kansas forward who overcame private tragedy to lead his team to a national runner-up finish this season, is leaving for the NBA.

Robinson made the formal announcement Monday, with coach Bill Self and 9-year-old sister Jayla by his side.

Robinson, the 1st unanimous first-team All-American because Blake Griffin, led the Jayhawks to the national championship game against Kentucky, where they lost 67-59. He averaged 17.9 points and 11.8 rebounds per game in 31.8 minutes in his junior season and led the nation with 27 double-doubles.

”Coming to college as a basketball player should be a target, it absolutely was 1 for me,” Robinson mentioned. ”Besides that, not winning the championship, I did anything I wanted to do plus much more. I felt like I got as well significantly really like for it and not even do that a lot. Right after I appear back at it, like coach was telling me during the season, I had no time to think about what I accomplished. It was a great encounter. I wouldn’t trade it in for something.”

Coach Bill Self joked that he believed Robinson known as everyone with each other to announce he was coming back.

”In all honesty, I knew this was going to occur since last summer,” Self mentioned. ”I’ve mentioned publically numerous times that our aim for him was to place him in position exactly where this could possibly be the case.”

Even had Robinson wanted to come back for his senior year, Self stated he would have encouraged him not to.

What lies ahead are practically assuredly NBA riches. The six-foot-9 forward could very well go in the 1st 5 picks of the June draft, which would mean a minimum rookie salary of far more than $ two.eight million.

It would be welcome news for Robinson and Jayla after what they’ve been by way of.

In January 2011, Robinson received a telephone call from his young sister, who told him that their mother had died of a heart attack in his hometown of Washington, D.C. The two had been raised by their single mother, Lisa Robinson. In a span of 3 weeks, they had also lost their grandfather and grandmother, and Robinson’s father had by no means truly been involved in his life.

The plan has been a thing of a surrogate household. They helped raise cash to cover some of the funeral expenditures, and to set up a scholarship fund to cover Jayla’s college education.

Robinson said it will be hard leaving Kansas — his teammates, the coaching staff, the fans and the town. He does strategy on coming back to obtain his degree. Robinson doesn’t have several credit hours left and finishing his degree is something that his mother would want him to do.

He had thoughts about leaving right after his sophomore season, which would have been a error.

”I wouldn’t have been prepared at all, I would have been eaten alive,” Robinson mentioned. ”Coming back, this may have been a single of my toughest years mentally and physically – I was playing a lot a lot more this year, there was a lot much more going on – that transformation helped me mature.”

Kansas will have a hard time replacing Robinson’s output. He raised his scoring average by far more than ten points, his rebounding average by far more than 5 rebounds whilst becoming on the court for twice as lengthy compared with his sophomore season.

”There was a huge void when Marcus and Markieff (Morris) left,” Self mentioned. ”There was a void when Cole (Aldrich) and Sherron (Collins) left. There was a void when Brandon (Rush), Mario (Chalmers), Julian (Wright), Shady (Darrell Arthur) and all those guys left. There’s usually going to be a void. We’re not going to replace 18 points and 12 rebounds. We’re not going to recruit a freshman that looks like this when he’s 18 years old. We’ll have guys that will grow into being their own separate version of what Thomas can give to us. We’re never ever going to have another him. There’s no purpose to attempt and duplicate it.”

Robinson mentioned he has not yet hired an agent but expects to in the subsequent couple of weeks..

”I hope he would want to be with somebody that would say, ‘Hey, we’re going to put you on a budget, you’re going to reside on it, this is how we’re going to do things,’ and I believe he just thrives in that variety of atmosphere,” Self stated. ”I assume he’ll be a hugely productive NBA player.”